The Board of Education got its first look Monday at conceptual building and athletic field proposals.
Superintendent Susan Swartz presented some preliminary options ranging in price from $4.2 million to $19 million.

“What I need from the board is some direction and guidance in terms of where you might want to go,” she said.

The district has about $834,000 in Expanding our Children’s Educational and Learning (EXCEL) grant it could use toward a project. Athletic fields would not qualify.

Swartz said a simple series of projects costing roughly $1.2 million with using EXCEL aid could include adding a districtwide public address system, roof resurfacing at the middle school,

Sacanadaga, Lincoln, Glen-Worden and chimney repair at Lincoln. Items at the high school could include establishing smoke corridors, double doors, exterior door units, a new stage curtain mechanism and removing gym folding doors. This cost would be $1.2 million.

Swartz said the district will have to make some long-term plans about what to do with the District Office, which it will receive from the Navy in 2011. It would cost about $650,000 for maintenance cost, removing asbestos tile and checking for lead. There has also been some discussion of adding on to the high school to accommodate the district offices.

Swartz said it would cost about $3,348,000 to replace the high school and middle school fields. She would like to replace the grass at the main track and football field with artificial turf, which would be more durable.

“You could play multiple matches, multiple competitions on any given field,” she said.
The condition of the fields is a particular issue for the board.

“Our fields are in such bad shape. We can’t keep ignoring them,” said Vice President Pam Carbone.
The big-ticket item in this project would be a new pool in its own separate building at a cost of about $9.7 million. All total, athletic improvements could total more than $14 million.

Swartz said to do everything she described, it would cost about $21 million to $23 million. Swartz said all of these cost estimates were prepared by the consulting firm of Dodge Chamberlin Luzine Weber Associates in fall 2006. She added an 8 percent inflationary factor to it. However, she stressed that these estimates could go about 25 percent higher based on “incidental costs.”

Board member John Yagielski said that maybe the district could build classrooms onto one of the elementary schools and covert another to the district office, which could lower the potential operating costs.

Swartz said during the board’s previous redistricting discussions, there was support for keeping the schools.

Board member Ben Conlon also said he had an issue with the idea of adding on classroom space to the high school just to accommodate the district office. “We have a population that’s declining. The elementary schools do not warrant additional space,” he said.

The Scotia-Glenville School District’s last major renovation project was in 1999, when voters approved spending $27 million on upgrades.